Messier 108

(from the description of M97)
Nebula near [M97 and Beta UMa], [position] yet to be determined.

Messier added a position by hand which was identified by Owen Gingerich in
1953 as that of H V.46 = NGC 3556, which is now called M108

(manuscript:)
Nebula near the preceding .. it is even fainter:
it is 48 or 49' further north and 30 min .. following in RA:
Found by M. Méchain 2 or 3 days after the preceding [M97, which he
found on February 16, so M108 was found on February 18 or 19, 1781]

(in his letter to Bernoulli,
May 6, 1783)
Page 265 No. 97 [M97]. A nebula near Beta in the
Great Bear. Mr. Messier mentions, when indicating its position, two others,
which I also have discovered and of which one is close to this one
[this is M108], the other is situated close to Gamma in the Great Bear
[M109], but I could not yet determine their
positions.

CCCC. 46 H. V. Ursae Majoris.
AR 11h 02m 02s, Dec N 56d 31.8'.
Mean Epoch of observation: 1835.29 [March 1835]
A large milky-white nebula, on the body of the Great Bear, with a small star
at its sp [South Preceding, SW] apex, and an 8th-magnitude preceding
[W] it at double the distance; there is also a brightish group in the
np [North Preceding, NW] quadrant. It is easily found, since it lies
only about 1 deg south-east of Beta, Merak. This object was discovered by H.
[William Herschel] in April, 1789; and is No. 831 of his
son's Catalogue. It is faint but well defined, being much elongated with an
axis-major trending sp [South Preceding, SW] and nf [north
following, NE] across the parallel, and a small star, like a nucleus, in its
center. As H. [WH] considers this star to be unconnected with the nebula, it
follows that it is between us and it, and therefore strengthens to
confirmation our belief in the inconceivable remoteness of those mysterious
bodies.

M. Tempel, of the Observatory at Arcetri, near Florence, has made a
considerable number of drawings of Nebulae with the two fine Amici telescopes
at his disposal, which it is to be hoped may soon be published. The following
Nebulae have, for the first time, been carefully drawn ar Arcetri: -
GC .., 1949 [M 81], 1950 [M82], 2318 [M108], .., 4315 [M 14], ..

Although Flammarion found Messier's notation of the position of the nebula
near Gamma Ursae Majoris [..] he made no attempt to number it, and because
Méchain did not give precise positions, Dr. Hogg omitted
identifications of this and the other nebula near Beta Ursae Majoris. From my
study of this region, the nebula near Beta is unambiguously NGC 3556, while
an examination of the critical limiting magnitude of the catalogue indicates
that the one near Gamma must be NGC 3992, a fact confirmed by the position
Messier added to his personal copy. Thus, if the objects from M104 to M107
are included, it seems logical to me to number NGC 3556 and NGC 3992 as M108
and M109 respectively, especially as they are mentioned in the original
catalogue.
[The identification of M108 is unambigous as Gingerich writes, but
see for M109]